Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Wednesday: Stop! [*]

The city is embroiled in another heated zoning debacle involving absent public processes and threatened lawsuits, this time involving UPMC. Bill Peduto, in whose district the activity is taking place, is up in arms. (P-G, Lord and Jones)

On the plus side, the Regional Enterprise Tower has gone solar in a big way. (Trib, Matthew Santoni)

18 comments:

It certainly seems that Twitter hashtags like #ravenstahlrumors change the discourse on public figures personal lives.

I disagree with Mr. Sprague's statements to Bob Mayo. When a public figure conducts himself in a manner that is inconsistent with the moral values he uses to defend oppressing his constituents, there is a connection between his personal life and his job as the Mayor. By conducts himself, I reference separating from your wife.

You simply cannot bash your LGBTQ citizenry with Catholic principles, deny our Constitutional right to privacy and then turn around both stances to protect yourself. Unconscienable.

I do want to add that most of the #ravenstahlrumors are silly, but it certainly is interesting as a phenom.

Finally!, some sort of punitive action was taken towards monk. I, along with many BurghBloggers I'm sure, am pleased.

Also, not to pull a monk, but I find the change to the Weblog Hotlist top 9 interesting: WWVB out, theHoagie in. I wonder if the new format change over at Hoagie had any influence. Like McDonalds, you can change the name, but the ingredients remain the same.

Since the splitsville news broke I've heard & read, repeatedly, the party line that they're really pushing, about Mrs. Ravenstahl not liking the public life. And yet Mr. Ravenstahl was already a city councilman when they married. His father's been an office holder for years. I don't think Mrs. R is dumb, she knew what she was in for in terms of public life, marriage into a political family and having a young, ambitious husband. So, I'm left wondering, what's the real reason for the split? And I'm sorry for their son.

It shows that while they may be able to hamstring the MSM, they have no understanding of social media. Their hamfisted tactics have po'd the public -- BAD MOVE -- and left Lukey wide open for rampant mockery.

Tacitus - I like to mix up the Hotlist every now and again is all. Infinonymous had slowed down his production as of late, and WWVB had taken a break from local issues. Meanwhile, the Radical Middle is back on the local beat publishing multi-part series and the Hoagie just underewent a major makeover.

It is not surprising that the Ravenstahl administration is considering mirroring the activities of Chicago government officials.

1. It will not solve the pension issue. 2. The city will lose control of key assets.3. Parking rates will skyrocket.

How does any of this benefit the city of Pittsburgh or its residents? It will only benefit Morgan Stanley and the "totally independent third party" who Luke hands the lots over too for pennies on the dollar.

Your post is a must read for anyone who cares about the future of Pittsburgh. Chicago is a corrupt city. Why are we mirroring their activities?

I'll tell you why. Leasing the parking garages will benefit Ravenstahl's money men, which in turn will benefit Ravenstahl.

It is that simple. Don't listen to his bullshit about solving the pension problem. It will not solve anything. It is a national problem that will not be solved at the local level. (see: social security)

TheTruth, MattH - I don't know what I think of the parking leases yet, but it should be clear to everybody that the potential downside is serious enough that it deserves real thoughtful debate. No one should make their mind up on the basis of politics or expediency. For its part the administration has been in full rush, rush mode -- the hard sell -- and the issue has matured past that point.

My main question is: why don't we keep the parking garages, jack the rates sky-high just like the private companies would, and reap the entire windfall ourselves? It'd be something different if we could do away with the Parking Authority in its entirety, but we all know we don't actually eliminate governmental entities when they become obsolete (Stadium Authority).

"why don't we keep the parking garages, jack the rates sky-high just like the private companies would, and reap the entire windfall ourselves?"

It's a good idea, it's what is going to happen anyway.

The problem is that we are going to get into some 75-99 year lease with whatever company and we will be losing out down the road to shore up now. I don't even know if this will shore up anything since it seems that they are only looking to infuse $200 million out of this deal.

They will undervalue the parking garages and even the parking meters. There is no doubt about it. The short-term gain on these garages is not worth the long-term loss.

Look at my post and read about that they are saying about this deal in Chicago.

I have NO faith that our leaders will get this done right. Why would they? When have they shown to do something right? When have they slowly thought something out and weighed out all of the options. There is nothing but a bad track-record to use a gauge as to how this administration will handle this.

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